Boost Productivity by Boosting SharePoint Performance
September 23, 2014
Users are always looking for ways to get increased functionality out of their SharePoint deployments. A recent Virtual Strategy article relays some good advice from enterprise executives. Read all the details in the article, “Increasing Employee Productivity by Boosting Microsoft SharePoint Performance.”
The article begins:
“SharePoint 2013 has the IT community abuzz with new features like co-authoring of SharePoint documents and OneDrive for business in addition to more than 100 new features and capabilities driving strong interest as customers continue to expand the role of this collaboration tool in their organizations.”
The author goes on to relay conversations with he had with enterprise executives regarding the connection they see between SharePoint performance and worker productivity. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and he also reports on SharePoint on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. His SharePoint feed is full of helpful news, tips, and tricks to help all levels of users navigate the intricacies of SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 23, 2014
Search Exposes Hackers
September 22, 2014
Hackers get their boldness from their anonymity and it encourages them to do malicious acts. Engadget has an interesting article that will strike fear into hackers: “Search Engine Turns The Tables On Hackers Exposing Their Info.” Indexeus is a search engine that shares hackers’ information in the same kind of data breaches they create. The search engine’s original purpose was to force the hackers to pay one dollar for every record they wanted to purse from the engine’s index. It is funny, because they had to pay safety money.
Indexeus was accused of extortion, so they had to waive that rule. The new law in the EU might mean something new for the hackers:
“Indexeus founder Jason Relinquo tells security guru Brian Krebs that blacklisting is now free due to the EU’s “right to be forgotten;” he can’t charge for a service that’s supposed to be gratis. That purported desire to obey the law is rather odd when the indexed content is illegal by nature. Look at it this way, though — if any targeted hackers are having second thoughts about their paths in life, this may be the excuse they need to make a clean break.”
Get a clean record? It could work, but it can also be used to cover their tracks. It still is wonderful that search is being used for the powers of good.
Whitney Grace, September 22, 2014
Clarabridge: Modified Positioning
September 22, 2014
I noted that Clarabridge has modified its marketing for the push to year end revenues. The company continues to use “customer experience” as a code work for customer support. The phrase “customer support” has become a go to reference for some stand up comedians. Customer service is now a “frontier,” not a method for reducing costs. The company is using the bound phrase “your voice” as a way to signal listening to individuals. The notion was parroted in “Clarabridge’s New Customer Service Frontier: Your Voice.” The article asserts:
Clarabridge, a Reston-based company that gathers and analyzes customer sentiment for a range of industries, is adding a noisy new feedback channel: speech.
Clarabridge ingested $80 million in venture funding. Some of the original investors have benefited from this infusion of money. Clarabridge at one time had staff with some expertise in MicroStrategy technology. Clarabridge will use some of the funding to amplify its content marketing activities in order to drive more sales leads.
How quickly will the enterprise search vendors “pivoting” to the customer support market adopt this terminology? Pretty quickly I anticipate.
My principal concern is that
Stephen E Arnold, September 22, 2014
Watson = Google. IBM, Of Course!
September 22, 2014
I read “How IBM’s Watson Could Do for Analytics What Search Did for Google.” I urge you to flip through a math book like Calculus on Manifolds: A Modern Approach to Classical Theorems of Advanced Calculus. Although an older book, some of its methods are now creeping into the artificial intelligence revolution that seems to be the next big thing. Then read the Datamation write up.
IBM is rolling out a “freemium model to move Watson, their [sic] English language AI interface for analytics, into the market more aggressively.” What could be more aggressive than university contents, recipes for Bon Appétit, and curing cancer?
The article points out that the only competitor to Watson is Google. Well, that’s an interesting assertion.
Google put an interface on search I learned. The rest is Google’s dominance. Now IBM wants to put an interface on analytics, and—I assume it follows to the thinkers at IBM—IBM’s dominance will tag along.
The article asserts:
We often talk about analytics needing data scientists who have a unique skill set, allowing them to get out the answers needed from highly complex data repositories. Since the results of the analysis are supposed to lead to better executive decisions the ideal skill set would have been an MBA Data Scientist, yet I’ve actually never seen one of those. Folks who are good at deep analysis and folks that are good at business tend to be very different folks, and data scientists are in very short supply at the moment.
Well, someone has to:
- Select numerical recipes
- Set thresholds
- Select process sequences
- Select data and ensure that they are valid
- Set up outputs, making decisions about what to show and what not to show
- Modify when the outputs do not match reality. (I realize that this step is of little interest to some analytics users.)
The article concludes:
The Freemium model has similar advantages. So if you wrap a product that line executives should prefer with an economic model that removes most of the financial barriers, you should end up with a solution that does for IBM what Search did for Google. And that could do some interesting things to the analytics market, creating a similar set of conditions to those that put IBM on top of technology in the last century.
What’s a freemium model? What’s the purpose of the analysis? What’s the method to validate results? What controls does a clueless user have over the Watson system?
Oh, wait. Watson is a search system. Google is a search system that people use. Watson is a search system that few use. Also, IBM still sells mainframes. This is a useful factoid to keep in mind.
Stephen E Arnold, September 22, 2014
Good-Bye Court Documents
September 22, 2014
The Internet makes it easier to access information, including documents from the government. While accessing government documents might cost a few cents, it is amazing that the information can be accessed within a few mouse clicks. BoingBoing, run by the infamous Cory Doctorow, notes that five important US courts are removing their documents from the Internet in “As Office Of US Courts Withdraws Records For Five Top Benches, Can We Make Them Open?”
The court documents are housed on the PACER system, most notable for charging users ten cents a page to access information. Doctorow advocates for free information and stopping governments from spying on its citizens. It is not surprising that he supports reopening these documents, along with the Free Law Project, Internet Archive, and Public.Resource.Org.
The plea reads:
“Our judiciary is based on the idea that we conduct justice public, not in star chambers and smoke-filled back rooms. Our system of justice is based on access to the workings of our courts, and when you hide those workings behind a pay wall, you have imposed a poll tax on access to justice. Aaron [Swartz] and many others believed very deeply in this principle and we will continue to fight for access to justice, equal protection, and due process. These are not radical ideas and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts should join us in our commitment.”
Swartz is known for working against Internet censorship bills, so joining Doctorow and the others will get the right backers to make these documents available again. You can fight city hall and win, especially if you are a technology enthusiast with legal aid.
Whitney Grace, September 22, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Aint No Copycat
September 22, 2014
Google does not copy anything. Really! Eric Schmidt posted on Google Plus that Google is an innovator not a copier. Notice how he posted it on Google Plus, a social network that does not copy anything we use on a daily basis. CNet took the post and editorialized it in “Google Doesn’t Copy, Explains Eric Schmidt.”
CNet seemed a little upset that Schmidt illustrated this idea with a cartoon depicting three lemonade stands. Two stands were exact duplicates, while the third sold hard lemonade with the tagline “know your competition, but don’t copy it.” The article points out how Steve Jobs did not like how iPhone elements were “borrowed” by Google.
Google is actually perpetuating its ego that all its ideas are original and are innovative to the technology market, but looking at all tech companies one can see that they have similarities. It spells problems:
“The real danger, of course, is to claim you’re startlingly innovative. The more one examines Apple, Samsung, Facebook, Google and the whole cabal of technological power, the more one sees an occasional — and no doubt coincidental — uniformity of thought.”
Here come the lawsuits! Yahoo, Overture, and GoTo have influenced Google, just like Facebook and Amazon. The quote” there are not anymore more original ideas anymore” sounds apt.
Whitney Grace, September 22, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Lucid Works: Really?
September 21, 2014
Editor’s Note: This amusing open letter to Chrissy Lee at Launchsquad Public Relations points out some of the challenges Lucid Imagination (now Lucid Works) faces. Significant competition exists from numerous findability vendors. The market leader in open source search is, in Beyond Search’s view, ElasticSearch.
Dear Ms. Lee,
I sent you an email on September 18, 2014, referring you to my response to Stacy Wechsler at Hired Gun public relations. I told you I would create a prize for the news release you sent me. I am retired, but I don’t have too much time to write for PR “professionals” who send me spam, fail to do some research about my background, and understand the topic addressed in your email.
Some history: I recall the first contact I had from Lucid Imagination in 2008. A fellow named Anil Uberoi sent me an email. He and I had a mutual connection, Mark Krellenstein who was the CTO for Northern Light when it was a search vendor.
I wrote a for fee report for Mr. Uberoi, who shortly thereafter left Lucid for an outfit called Kitana. His replacement was a fellow named David. He left and migrated to another company as well. Then a person named Nancy took over marketing and quickly left for another outfit. My recollection is that in a span of 24 months, Lucid Imagination churned through technical professionals, marketers, and presidents. Open source search, it seemed, was beyond the management expertise of the professionals at Lucid.
Then co founder Mark Krellenstein cut his ties with the firm, I wondered how Mr. Krellenstein could deliver the innovative folders function for Northern Light and flop at Lucid. Odd.
Recently I have been the recipient of several emails sent to my two major email accounts. For me, this is an indication of spam. I knew about the appointment of another president. I read “Trouble at Lucid Works: Lawsuits, Lost Deals, and Layoffs Plague the Search Startup Despite Funding.” Like other pundit-fueled articles, there is probably some truth, some exaggeration, and some errors in the article. The overall impression left on me by the write up is that Lucid Works seems to be struggling.
Your emails to me indicate that you perceive me as a “real” journalist. Call me quirky, but I do not like it when a chipper young person writes me, uses my first name, and then shovels baloney at me. As the purveyor of search silliness for your employer Launchsquad, which seems Lucid Works’ biggest fan and current content marketing agent. Not surprisingly, the new Lucid Fusion products is the Popeil pocket fisherman of search. Fusion slices, dices, chops, and grates. Here’s what Lucid Works allegedly delivers via Lucene/Solr and proprietary code:
- Modular integration. Sorry, Ms. Lee, I don’t know what this means.
- Big Data Discovery Engine. Ms. Lee, Lucid has a search and retrieval system, not a Cybertap, Palantir, or Recorded Future type system.
- Connector Framework. Ms. Lee licensees want connectors included. Salesforce bought Entropy Soft to meet this need. Oracle bought Outside In for the same reason. Even Microsoft includes some connectors with the quite fragile Delve system for Office 365.
- Intelligent Search Services.Ms. Lee, I suggest you read my forthcoming article in KMWorld about smart software. Today, most search services are using the word intelligent when the technology in use has been available for decades.
- Signals Processing.Ms. Lee, I suggest you provide some facts for signals processing. I think in terms of SIGINT, not crude click log file data.
- Advanced Analytics.Ms. Lee, I lecture at several intelligence and law enforcement conferences about “analytics.” The notion of “advanced” analytics is at odds with the standard numerical recipes that most vendors use. The reason “advanced” is not a good word is that there are mathematical methods that can deliver significant return. Unfortunately today’s computer systems cannot get around the computational barriers that bring x86 architectures to their knees.
- Natural Language Search.Ms. Lee, I have been hearing about NLP for many years. Perhaps you have not experimented with the voice search functions on Apple and Android devices? You should. Software does a miserable job of figuring out what a human “means.”
So what?
Frankly I am not confident that Lucid Works can close the gap between your client and ElasticSearch’s. Furthermore, I don’t think Lucid Works can deliver the type of performance available from Searchdaimon or ElasticSearch. The indexing and query processing gap between Lucid Works and Blossom Software is orders of magnitude. How do I know? Well, my team tested Lucid Works’ performance against these systems. Why don’t you know this when you write directly to the person who ran the tests? I sent a copy of the test results to one of Lucid Works’ many presidents.
Do I care about Ms. Lee, the new management team, the investors, or the “new” Lucid?
Nope.
The sun has begun to set on vendors and their agents who employ meaningless jargon to generate interest from potential licensees.
What’s my recommendation? I suggest a person interested in Lucid navigate to my Search Wizards Speak series and read the Lucid Imagination and Lucid Works interviews. Notice how the story drifts. You can find these interviews at www.arnoldit.com/search-wizards-speak.
Why does Lucid illustrate “pivoting”? It is easy to sit around and dream about what software could do. It is another task to deliver software that matches products and services from industry leaders and consistent innovators.
For open source search, I suggest you pay attention to www.Flax.co.uk, www.Searchdaimon.com, www.sphinxsearch.com, and www.elasticsearch.com for starters. Keep in mind that other competitors like IBM and Attivio use open source search technology too.
You will never have the opportunity to work directly for me. I can offer one small piece of advice: Do your homework before writing about search to me.
Your pal,
Stephen E Arnold, September 21, 2014
IBM and Big Iron
September 20, 2014
I read an interesting article about IBM. “IBM – A New Behemoth, or a Wounded Beast?” I noted that IBM is continuing to rely on Big Iron for some revenue. The write up reported:
IBM is pushing the mainframe as a Linux engine. Sales of the mainframe continue to be strong, and the majority of sales now include Linux capabilities. Although the mainframe is not an engine for everyone, it shows no sign of fading away, and will remain a core part of IBM’s future.
The argument in the article is less on IBM as either a behemoth or a beast. The article suggests that it has a flawed strategy with regard to Intel x86 systems.
IBM faces some significant growth hurdles, and the company has not formulated a winning strategy for its cloud solutions as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft take aim at IBM’s approach to enterprise cloud computing.
Furthermore, IBM is betting on Watson to generate billions in revenue. Is there a strategic vision behind Watson or the allied Cognos-SPSS-i2 lines of business.
What this article does is make very clear that IBM has some significant issues with regard to its corporate strategy. Both HP and IBM are increasingly vulnerable in multiple lines of business. Maybe enterprise apps will generate the types of revenue lift IBM enjoyed in its salad days? But then, maybe not?
Stephen E Arnold, September 20, 2014
Russian Content: Tough to Search If Russia Is Not on the Internet
September 20, 2014
Forget running queries on Yandex.ru if Russia disconnects from the Internet. Sure, there may be workarounds, but these might invite some additional scrutiny. Why am I suggesting that some Russian content becomes unsearchable. Well, I believed the story “Russia to Be Disconnected from the Internet.” Isn’t Pravda a go to source for accurate, objective information?
The story asserts:
This is not a question of disconnecting Russia from the international network, yet, Russian operators will need to set up their equipment in a way to be able to disconnect the Russian Internet from the global network quickly in case of emergency, the newspaper wrote. As for the state of emergency, it goes about both military actions and large-scale riots in the country. In addition, the government reportedly discusses a possibility to empower the state with the function to administer domains. Currently this is a function of a public organization – the Coordination Center for the National Domain of the Internet. The purpose of the possible measure is not to isolate Russia from the outside world, but to protect the country, should the USA, for example, decide to disconnect Russia from the system of IP-addresses. It will be possible to avoid this threat, if Russia has a local regulator to distribute IP-addresses inside the country, rather than the ICANN, controlled by the United States government. This requires operators to set up “mirrors” that will be able to receive user requests and forward them to specific domain names.
Interesting. Who is being kept in the information closet? I suppose it depends on one’s point of view. Need an update for Sphinx Search? There will be a solution because some folks will plan ahead.
Stephen E Arnold, September 20, 2014
Google and Its Possible Really, Really Big Ambitions
September 19, 2014
I read “Looking Past the Search Results: Google 2.0 Will Build Airports and Cities Says Report.” The “report” appears to be the work of an outfit doing business as “The Information.” The founder of The Information is Jessica E. Lessin. She was a Wall Street Journal reporter. She morphed into a “reportrepreneur.” (See About the Information for more about the company.)
The “report” costs money. The Independent’s summary of the main idea reveals:
Larry Page has set up a ‘company within a company’ dubbed ‘Google 2.0’ that will look at the tech giant’s long-term future – presumably for when advertising revenue from search traffic (inevitably) dries up.
The “report” suggests that Google may build airports and cities. I assume these will complement the Loon, Glass, Death, and other moon shot projects.
The Independent reports that Google may form Google Y Labs. No word on Google Z.
I must admit that when I saw the headline, someone had stumbled across my 2007 monograph published by a now defunct UK outfit. That monograph was called “Google Version 2.0.”
I was wrong. The 2014 version 2.0 moves into far more speculative realms than my modest effort to explore some of Google’s technical plumbing. That’s why there are no big thinkers in rural Kentucky. Better to be a big thinker, reportrepreneur.
My view is that Google faces some significant challenges; for example, the company has yet to find a fast ramp solution to the difference between old style online advertising based on the Yahoo/Overture/GoTo model for desktop computers and the new, limited screen real estate of mobile devices. Google has demonstrated that it is vulnerable to regulators in Europe. Google has lagged Amazon in the cloud market and most recently in buying a top level domain. Now Apple is probing Google in terms of its apparent willingness to trade on customer content. There are some other issues. Some are big like the management structure at Google. Some are small like the interpersonal interactions of a Google manager, a colleague, and the surprising departure of a wizard to Amazon.
Google is interesting because it seems to have fulfilled Steve Ballmer’s prophecy of the GOOG as a one trick pony. I think Google 3.0 may be a better name for the new “report.”
Stephen E Arnold, September 19, 2014
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